Many military platforms are equipped with multiple threat warning systems, which provide for the detection of projectiles, missiles, and other threats. These systems typically operate in the Radio Frequency (RF), and Electro-Optic (EO) portions of the Electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. In some cases, a single threat warning system of these types may receive information that is not properly interpreted as a threat. In other cases, a single threat warning system may receive information that indicates the potential presence of a threat, but that is insufficient to positively identify the threat. Such information may be disregarded as a potential false alarm, a case of mistaken identity, or other inconclusive outcome. Failure to take action in the presence of an actual threat can have dire outcomes. In still other situations, often due to incomplete information, non-threatening sources can be erroneously declared to be threats, resulting in false alarms that may distract an operator from an actual threat.
Even when multiple threat warning systems are present at the same time, each may be unable to declare the presence of a threat on its own, given the information received and known to each. Essentially, the overall suite of individual threat warning systems operates based on the principle of “No+No=No,” i.e. that a threat is only declared if a single system positively declares the presence of a threat. In other scenarios, a single threat can result in multiple independent declarations from the federated systems, thereby resulting in the mistaken belief that multiple threats are present. This is particularly more likely when modern weapon systems are encountered in the battlespace. These weapons contain multiple subsystems, sometimes comprising a distributed network, each of which may or may not be detectable by the individual sensors in the threat warning suite.
What is needed, therefore, are data fusion systems and methods that allow for the various components of a threat warning suite of systems to share information in such a way as to allow threats to be more accurately identified and declared.